Month: January 2011

This page of mental arithmetic subtraction is most suited to year 4. The first 8 questions are straightforward subtractions of a single digit from a multiple of 100. By year 4 children should be quite confident with these, although there are several different approaches which can be taken to reach the answer. For instance: 300 – 8 can be done by counting back 8 from 300, or by subtracting 10 and adding 2.

The last three questions ask for a written explanation of how the answer was worked out.

January is usually the time when schools start looking seriously at the Key Stage 2 tests and what needs doing to get the best possible scores. Our Year 6 ‘Booster’ pages can help a great deal with this. Part of this resource looks in particular at time, with lots of questions matching those found in the tests. We have four pages of questions involving finding how long it is from one time to another, the 24 hour clock, calendars and interprteting charts.

This is the second page on reading train prices and working out the costs of single and return journeys. The numbers are slightly harder on this page and jottings could be helpful, especially on the questions which require two steps to reach an answer. When working out the amount of change given it is often easier to add on from the cost to reach the money given, rather than do a subtraction. It is a pity that shop assistants just dump change into the palm of your hand rather than counting it out as they used to do many years ago!

Mr.Wolf’s Week
Mr Wolf’s Week by Colin Hawkins is an old favourite and one of the best versions is the mini-pop up.
In this book the wolf is not very threatening, perhaps almost friendly in appearance. It is a brightly coloured book which leads you through a week in the life of Mr Wolf. He wears different clothes each day of the week which co-incide with the type of weather. It rains on Mondays so he takes an umbrella with him etc etc. The pages are really brightly coloured and funny.
Good for talking about the days of the week in the right sequence as well as talking about the weather.
There is not a lot of writing on the pages, but the illustrations give plenty of ideas to talk about, which is probably why it is a favourite in classrooms.

Here is something slightly different from the usual maths worksheet. It is a diary of events which assesses how well children understand units of measurement and whether they can choose the most suitable unit or not.

The units include:

time: seconds, minutes, hours, days

capacity: millilitres, litres

length: centimetres, metres, kilometres

Children have to circle the most sensible of the units of measurement shown. (No Imperial measures!)

This is suitable for Year 3 children and can be found in our Year 3 Measuring section.

Two studies recently published in the Science Journal would suggest that a couple of ‘old fashioned’ methods of learning are more effective than many of those used today.

Firstly, a study from the University of Stavanger suggests that writing things down rather than by typing helps with learning. Our brains receive more feedback from muscles and fingertips when writing rather than touching a keyboard. Also, it takes more mental effort and time and this is thought to help ‘imprint’ memories. I must admit to always thinking that recording on paper was a good way to learn and spent much of my time when revising for exams writing down what I knew. This would suggest that writing answers in maths is better done in a maths book, or worksheet than just keying in answers on a keyboard.

The second piece of research, from Purdue University, Indiana, says that reciting facts shortly after learning them is better than many newer educational methods such as mind mapping. Constant informal testing and reciting helps to reconstruct knowledge, both for short term and long term memory.

Year 3 is a time when children make huge strides forward in their mathematical thinking, as long as they have got a secure background knowledge. With over 20 pages to choose from, our worksheets in the Know Number Facts reflect this development. We have worksheets on knowing addition and subtraction facts with numbers up to 20, doubling numbers and subtracting from a teen number.

We also have a number of pages dedicated to calculator games. The aim of these is to use the calculator as a means of showing knowledge of tables and multiples of 3, 4, 5 and 10, not just as a means of working an answer out.

Division, of course, is much easier if tables are known and we have a growing number of pages of division questions.

The Shopping Basket by John Burningham is a great little book which will be thoroughly enjoyed by young children whilst at the same time helping them with counting and subtraction. Steven is a little boy who is asked by his mum to go round to the local corner shop, taking the shopping basket with him to bring back 6 eggs, five bananas, four apples….etc. The scenario will be familiar to many children as a trip round to the corner shop is often the first time they are allowed out alone by their parents. However, this is not an ordinary trip to the shops as Steven meets all kinds of dangers on the way. These dangers come in the form of animals such as a bear, a monkey and a kangaroo, demanding the contents of his shopping basket. Steven deals with the dangers in a variety of ways and arrives home safely – but will his heroic efforts be appreciated? John Burningham is one of the best writers of children’s books and this is one of his best – humourous, well illustrated and not to be missed.

This is a good example of the worksheets we have for year 5 on fractions and division. Only six questions on this worksheet, but plenty of important concepts, which children often find very tricky to understand.

Firstly, that division can be represented as a fraction, and, of course, a fraction can be thought of as a division.

Secondly, an improper fraction (where the top number is larger than the bottom number) can be shown as a mixed number (a whole number and a proper fraction). This can be done by dividing the numerator (top number) by the denominator (bottom number) to find the whole part with the remainder being the numerator of the new fraction. The denominator remains the same.

These, and similar pages can be found in our Year 5 Counting and Understand Number section.